Executive Function Strategies Blog

Is your child’s backpack and locker a mysterious black hole, from which no permission slip or study guide ever resurfaces? Does your child risk keeling over from the weight of all of the papers they lug around daily? If you’re like many parents I know, you’d welcome a solution to managing the avalanche of paper that overwhelms many students by this time in the school year. Well, here’s my holiday gift to you - I’ll share with you my new favorite app to help your child reduce the paper clutter and stay organized!

At this point in the school year, students and parents have often (mostly) overcome the initial back to school transition glitches. The class schedule is starting to feel more automatic, you know the teachers’ names, and thoughts turn more readily to fall and winter holidays than the wistful memories of sunny beach outings.

Yet, as soon as you think things have settled down, life gets chaotic all over again. Have you noticed that loose papers are rapidly accumulating, expensive supplies have gone missing, and that backpack seems suspiciously bloated? This is the perfect time to keep calm and get organized with a few tips to regain some of that back-to-school freshness and orderliness.

Chances are, you’ve heard variations on the first two statements, and have probably imagined the third at some point. (Of course, if you’ve actually heard #3 above, you may be reading the wrong blog. Just sayin’...)

Our adult lives are hectic. There are always places to be and tasks to complete. Our kids’ lives are just as fast-paced much of the time. They have 22 minutes from waking until getting to the bus stop. They have 4 minutes in between classes to pop by their lockers and get their science notebook and to jam their sweaty gym clothes into a dark corner. And at the end of the day, with their minds on soccer practice or dance class or the latest gossip about who-said-what-to-whom, is it any surprise that they forget to bring home the paperback novel they’re reading for English homework?